And The Boys
by cherry-magpie-x
Summary: Oneshot. One sided Franky/Matty, heavy on the Alo/Mini... if you squint a LOT. Title taken from a song in 05x07. T for language.   Franky muses on the issue of Matty, while Mini and Alo offer surprising support.


**Disclaimer: Skins, of course, does not belong to me. It belongs to its wonderful creators, without whom this wouldn't exist, so don't sue me :) We're all clear? On with the - show? Story? Anyway, let's leave this behind...**

"_You forget her **now**_."

After the show, those are the only words Franky can think, and every time she thinks them, she feels the rough knock of Matty's shoulder against hers. She can't help but play it over in her mind.

_You forget her **now**_, _ok?_

But she doesn't want to be forgotten. She wants more than just that hard, forceful contact between them as Matty walked away. She wants to feel like she did that day they first met – that awful day where she found a field and shot at an old piece of metal, half-blind with tears and frustration and anger. She wants to hear Matty call her 'beautiful' again, look at her as if she's made of spun gold and stars, have him gaze at her and flick his eyes to her lips, then back up to her own eyes, and smile like they share a secret. She wants all of it so badly that it's a physical pain, an aching in her chest, a shake in her hands as she rips the Shakespearean costume from her body and stumbles back into a dark sweater and torn jeans. She can hear the audience still, filing out, full of praise for the cast and Grace's directing skills, though their noise is distant, as if filtered through water or fog. But there's a sharper noise nearby, cutting through the rest of the fuzz filling Franky's head.

"Franky – Franky! Oi, Franky bad-ass!"

It's Mini. She's gotten changed too, into a short, floaty white dress and high heels – of course. Behind her is Alo, in a woolly jumper and jeans. Both of them look vaguely concerned.

"Why the long faces?" Franky sobs, and she realises they look worried because she's crying without even knowing it, big, salty tears filled with make-up residue sliding down her cheeks.

"Franky, what's wrong?" Alo asks softly, in a tone usually reserved for Rags when he's got his back up about something. He and Mini move forward, and Franky steps back, uncertain of the comfort that this pair can offer. But there's no sensible Grace with her gentle smile and warm words, and there's certainly no Liv with her bolshy attitude and smart advice. There's nobody here but Franky, Mini and Alo, and before she can stop herself, Franky's falling forward, sobbing like a child. Alo and Mini catch her in a spasmodic, awkward embrace, and look at each other over Franky's head.

"Let's go," they agree.

* * *

And so, after a while, the girls find themselves sitting on a damp bench in the middle of Bristol, with no idea where to go next. Alo's gone to Tesco the next street over, in a valiant quest for Evian – Mini's request – and a packet of Skittles for Franky, who he figures might need to taste a rainbow, and as none of them have got any form of narcotic on them at the moment, Skittles are going to have to do. While they wait for him, Mini watches Franky cry and dab at her eyes with a crumpled paper napkin that she found in her blazer pocket, a strange look of pity on her face.

"Are you ever going to tell me what's up, then?"

"The sky," Franky says feebly, refusing to make eye contact. Mini laughs.

"You honestly think I'm going to fall for that, Franks? I might be blonde, but I'm not bloody stupid. You know, you can tell _me_ what it is that's wrong..."

"Oh, can I?" Franky says defensively, wishing her voice didn't break on the last note so she didn't sound so much like a child.

"Yes." Mini says evenly, looking Franky right in the face, voice steady. "It's what friends are for, isn't it?"

"So we're friends now?" Franky demands in reply. Mini simply smiles.

"Right now, Francesca Fitzgerald, you're the best friend that I've got."

"Sorry to interrupt such a touching little moment, ladies," Alo says, suddenly appearing in front of them, Tesco bag swinging from his hand. "But I'm actually quite offended. Where do _I_ fit in this little love-in?"

"Wherever you can find space on the bench, Farmboy," Mini says, sliding up to make room. Alo hands her the Evian and passes two bags of Skittles to Franky, who takes them with her first smile in at least an hour.

"Anyway, don't think I'm letting you get away that easy," Mini says, tone firm. "I want you to tell me what's wrong."

"I don't..." Franky sighs, running a small, delicate hand through her tangled hair. "I don't want to talk about it."

And it's true – she doesn't. The rest of the gang might _think_ that there's something going on with her, and she's willing to let them, perfectly happy to remain an enigma on the topic of Matty and the fact that her heart's being put through a proverbial meat mincer.

"No man is an island... Or girl, in this case." Alo muses, lighting up a cigarette. "Problem shared is a problem halved, and all that jazz."

"Since when were you made of cliches, Alo?" Franky laughs. He grins in return.

"What else am I meant to say?"

Franky shrugs, popping a few more Skittles into her mouth, praying they don't stick in her braces.

"Well, if you won't talk, I know what we can do."

"Oh? And what's that?" Mini asks, taking one red Skittle from the palm of Franky's hand as they both look at Alo, who stands, looking mischievious.

"Let's go and get _fucked_."

* * *

So they do. They climb in through the back-window of a night-club into the ladies bathrooms. Alo gives a girl applying lipstick at the mirror enough of a shock that she stains her cheek bright pink with the stuff.

"Sorry, love," he says, helping Mini down after him, Franky laughing from beside the door. "Enjoy yourself!"

They head into the corridor, all three of them holding hands, Mini pretending to mind.

"I can't believe you've roped me into this," she sighs, as if she didn't willingly come along. "You're bad influences."

"And you _love _it." Alo smiles. Then they're on the dancefloor, and they don't need to talk anymore, for which Franky is glad. She loses herself to the heavy beat of a dubstep track that Alo is familiar with, judging by the way he's dancing, coaxing Mini into jumping with him – not that it takes much coaxing. Even though she's still aching in every part of her, it gives Franky a strange satisfaction to watch the two of them laugh, Mini's blonde hair flying out behind her as Alo spins her in a circle. They've forgotten about Franky, at least momentarily, and she dances alone, arms above her head, hips swaying from side to side, eyes closed. When she opens them, more than a few boys are staring at her – a few confused at her infeminine, unusual attire, but most in an appreciative sort of way. She turns her back on them. She doesn't want their attention – not _theirs_. Before she can stop herself, she's thinking about Matty again, wishing that he was here to gawp at the inch of skin that shows above the band of her jeans when she dances. But she's left with sweaty, drunk boys giving her the eye instead. When she can't bear anymore, she throws herself at Alo and Mini – who, to give them their credit, get over being interrupted fairly fast and start to dance in a three-some, all of them linked in some way – Mini's hand around Franky's wrist, Franky clinging tight to Alo's shirt as the crowd begins to get thicker. Eventually, they give it a rest to go to the bar, shot after shot blurring in Franky's vision. When she sees four white brogues at her feet instead of two, she knows it's probably time to stop, but she continues anyway. Her stomach is rolling as if she's on a boat by the time they see a bouncer on the other side of the room, clearly searching for something. At that, Alo wraps an arm around Mini's waist and Franky's shoulder, guiding them discreetly – well, as discreetly as a drunken teenage boy can manage – to the door, where they make a break for it. Franky shoves the rest of her remaining packet of Skittles into the hand of the bemused doorman, laughing at the expression on his face.

"Have a nice night, mate."

And on that note, they're off, laughing into the night.

* * *

"You're sure your parents won't mind, Franky?" Mini whispers, not so quietly, as Franky lets them in to her house.

"They're not even here, Mini," Franky giggles, hanging up her blazer behind the door. "They're away at some army re-union thing – won't be back until at least tomorrow."

Mini nods. Alo's too drunk to care, staring around at Franky's house before shambling off in search of food. This leaves Mini and Franky in an awkward silence, remembering the last time that Mini set foot in this hallway, in this house.

"Franky... I really am... Well, I'm sorry about how awful I was to you."

Franky nods, unsure of how to reply.

"I mean, I know you think it's just the drinks talking, but I really am. I mean, I'm not a talking drink. I'm sorry."

"I... got that." Franky laughs, and that relieves the tention. They go after Alo and perch on stools in the kitchen, eating cereal dry with their hands and pelting each other with it every so often. Alo passes out face first on the kitchen island, and in the quiet after that, the girls look at each other.

"It's about a boy, isn't it? That's what's wrong with you?"

Damn. And here was Franky thinking she'd gotten away with it.

"It might be."

"It's Matty. Am I right, or am I right?" Mini leans forward on her elbows, a smile playing around her lips. "It _is_ Matty, isn't it?"

"It – it might be." Franky tries to be cryptic – God, if there's one thing she's good at it's that – but she knows she's failed. She can feel a tell-tale blush creeping up on her cheeks, and her voice shakes. "And anyway, even if it _was_ Matty, it wouldn't matter – because, well, because he's with Liv."

"I was with Nick. That didn't matter to Liv, did it?" Mini says sharply.

"I'm not going to do like you said at Alo's, Mini," Franky says, shaking her head. "I won't go there with Matty just because Liv did it to you. We might be friends, but two wrongs don't make a right."

"That's true," Mini mumbles, all the fight going out of her. "Is that what was going on backstage tonight?"

"Yeah. Liv told him to forget all about me."

And then there's another onset of tears, Franky burying her face in her hands as she sobs through the whole sorry situation to Mini. Everything she feels, everything that hurts her, everything that she really just cannot understand about how Matty can make her heart race and her stomach flutter. And Mini, the girl she thought was cold and nasty and bitter, wraps her arms around Franky and simply lets her cry and talk until there's nothing left to say. And after that, she wipes Franky's cheeks with a tissue and smiles softly. But she doesn't speak, and Franky understands why. Because there aren't any words in the world that can cure her.

* * *

When Franky wakes up the next morning, it's with a pounding head and red-rimmed eyes – partly from alcohol and partly from crying. Alo and Mini are wrapped together on her bedroom floor under the spare blankets, both of them snoring loudly. Franky smiles at the picture they make, and then decides to actually _take _a picture for her bedroom wall, which is rapidly filling with photographs from her time in Bristol. It's true that she's happier here than she ever was in Oxford. The girls, after a fashion, weren't so cruel, and the boys... well, the less said the better, but mostly they have their hearts in the right place. Franky's eye alights on a picture of the gang by her mirror, in which Matty is fooling around, acting up for the camera. She wonders if his heart's really in the right place – she sometimes wonders if he has a heart at all. Surely he knows what he does to her, _surely _he understands the effect that he has on her every time she sees him.

"Dicksplash." Franky tells his photograph, knowing in her heart that she doesn't mean it. Alo snores especially loud behind her, and she hears Mini begin to wake.

When they first met, Matty called her a 'glorious fucking head-fuck thing'.

Well, her head's well and truly fucked now.

**A/N: So! This is just a little something that came to me after 05x07 last week, and after watching the previews, I just thought "So what's happened to make Franky and Mini best mates, then?" And of course, there's always the issue of Franky and Matty... ****And so, this was born. It's set pre- 05x08, so if it completely contradicts everything that happens in that episode, it figures. Anyway, it's a bit of a drabble, but I hope you enjoy! As always, reviews make my LIFETIME. Happy reading! **

**_Cherry _**


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